Freight may be transported in containers using various carriers such as ships, trains, aircraft, trucks, etc. The carriers may have to comply with international, legal, industrial, shipping and/or commercial regulations related to the weight of the freight being carried. A record of the weight of cargo may need to be kept and/or communicated to various facilities (e.g., truck weighing stations, shipping ports, import control stations, etc.).
It may be necessary to monitor the condition (e.g., the distribution of weight) of certain freight and/or cargo to comply with safety regulation or prevent accidents from occurring due to changes in the weight or condition of the freight. Existing methods may be time-consuming or involve periods of wait while each freight container is inspected and checked for compliance with weight and/or cargo regulations (e.g., such as physically opening and/or inspecting each container in order to assess and monitor the condition and/or weight of the freight being transported).
A distributed network of mail receptacles (e.g., postal service mailboxes, courier pickup points, residential mailboxes, etc.) may be serviced by a mail operator (e.g., courier service, postal service, etc.). The mail operator may have to travel a physical route within the distributed network and access each mail receptacle in order to pick up mail contained by each mail receptacle.
The mail operator may not know whether a particular mail receptacle actually contains mail or is empty. It may be time consuming and/or inefficient for the mail operator to travel to each location in the distributed network having a mail receptacle in order to check whether each mail receptacle contains mail for pickup.
A residential or commercial owner of a mail receptacle may also have to physically visit the location of the mail receptacle to establish whether mail may have arrived. It may be time-consuming and/or difficult (e.g., due to inhospitable weather, infirmity on the part of the owner, etc.) for the owner to have to physically check the mail receptacle every time in order to establish whether mail may have arrived.
Hospitals, clinics, mental care facilities and/or other institutions having human and/or animal patients may need to monitor the weight and/or resting orientation of patients who may be confined to hospital beds, gurneys, stretchers etc. for different reasons. The patients may be overweight and develop bed sores or internal complications if they rest in one position too long.
Patients may require assistance to shift because of factors such as obesity, old age, infirmity, incapacitation, mental disorders, paralysis, etc. It may be difficult to take measurements of the weight of the patient using existing methods that require movement of the patient onto a weighing surface, lifting of the patient, and/or various other adjustments to the position of the patient. It may be difficult or risky to move the patient because the patient may be very heavy, frail, unable to be moved due to certain medical conditions, or dangerous (e.g., may pose a threat to people who approach the patient).
Existing methods that do not require lifting or moving of the patient may not be easily implemented or accurate enough to take effective readings of the weight of the patient in order to monitor aspects such as the patient's orientation, duration of the patient's resting situation, etc. Existing methods of measuring the weight of a patient may not be easily or permanently integrated into an apparatus for supporting the patient and as such may require various adjustments each time a measurement or reading of the patient's weight or orientation must be taken. Existing methods may not permit caretakers or nurses attending to the patients to assess the patient's condition without being physically present at the location of the patient.